The fat lady has been singing about Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to save two of four city employee pension funds ever since the Illinois Supreme Court overturned state pension reforms in May.

The music got louder in July, when a Circuit Court judge overturned the mayor’s plan to stave off insolvency at the Municipal Employees and Laborers pension funds citing the high court’s “crystal-clear direction” and its reading of a constitutional guarantee that pension benefits “shall not be diminished or impaired.”

At the same time, City Hall has systematically ticketed drivers near schools without the legally required evidence of a schoolchild in sight. A Tribune random-sample analysis puts the number of those questionable tickets at about 110,000.

So, is a bit of light actually beginning to shine at the end of Illinois’ seemingly unending fiscal tunnel?

After six months of all-out political warfare over the state budget, a few things have happened in the past few days that give some small reason for optimism. And those new developments keep happening.

The two latest: House Speaker Mike Madigan actually has agreed to speak to the City Club of Chicago, which has been trying to get him for decades. And the reaction to the big budget/structural reform deal floated this morning by top political operative Greg Goldner.

Now that Lake County authorities have ruled the death of Fox Lake police Lt.Charles Joseph Gliniewicz a suicide, the village is expected to tackle the question of what pension benefits his surviving family members will receive.

While Gliniewicz’s family has yet to apply for pension benefits, Illinois Public Pension Fund Association president James McNamee said the Lake County Major Crime Task Force’s announcement that authorities concluded the lieutenant committed suicide, fearing years of alleged criminal activity would be discovered, likely ruled out his family’s chance of receiving larger benefits owed survivors of officers killed in the line of duty.

“This was not a line of duty death,” McNamee said.

Aldermen are tweaking a tax on e-cigarettes to put the emphasis on the volume of liquid nicotine consumed rather than the containers sold.

Ald. Joe Moreno (1st) called it a “crucial Issue … right-sizing the amount we’re charging” in testimony before Monday’s Finance Committee meeting.

Moreno’s proposal cuts the tax on a single container of liquid nicotine from $1.25 to 80 cents, but hikes the tax per milliliter of liquid nicotine from 25 cents to 55 cents.

Chicago last month approved a $543 million property tax increase, phased in over four years. With Illinois residents already paying an effective property tax rate of 2.32 percent (in 2013, the most recent year Census data is available), the increase will likely displace New Jersey’s long-standing record of the state with the nation’s highest property taxes (2.38 percent on average, in 2013).

Rahm Emanuel, Chicago’s Mayor, said the move was forced by large pension obligations, eroding credit ratings, and a legacy of expensive borrowing. Chicago’s combined taxes and fees will now be the highest of any Illinois city, and its property taxes higher than Los Angeles, New York, Washington, and Houston.

A new report by economist Scott Mackey and the non-partisan Tax Foundation shows that the excessive rate of wireless taxation on American consumers is on the rise across the country.

The national average rate for wireless taxes jumped from 17.05 percent to 17.96 percent. Washington State once again has the highest combined wireless tax rate, which now exceeds 25 percent. Florida (21 percent) dropped from the 4^th highest taxed state to 7^th thanks to a reduction to state’s Communications Services Tax. Seven other state’s now join Washington and Florida with rates in excess of 20 percent (Nebraska, New York, Illinois, Missouri, Rhode Island, Arkansas and Pennsylvania).

Some of the report’s main findings include:

Five years ago, two teachers knocked on Precious Brewster’s door in Englewood to tell her about a new school in the community, Amandla Charter School. She liked what she heard and decided to enroll her three children.

Up until that point, Brewster had considered homeschooling her kids so they didn’t have to attend their neighborhood schools, which she says were chaotic and sometimes violent.

Amandla’s rules and structure were a big draw. Brewster also liked that teachers visit families at home and give frequent updates about children’s progress.